Indiana University board approves dental school expansion

August 24, 2015Indianapolis — The Indiana University Board of Trustees approved Aug. 14 a $21.6 million, 45,000-square-foot expansion to the Indiana University School of Dentistry.

The building addition on the IU-Purdue University Indianapolis campus will provide state-of-the-art clinical space for the 136-year-old school, which has been operating in facilities constructed in the 1930s, 1960s and 1970s, according to a press statement.

"The expansion is about more than our facilities," said Dr. John N. Williams, dean of the IU dental school. "It is also about re-engineering the way we operate. As we create contemporary spaces to educate our students and care for the oral health needs of our state, we will be asking ourselves how we can do each process better."

The school will begin working with architects and space planners to design the clinical addition. The school already has raised more than $4 million from alumni toward the construction project, which will be funded through dental school capital funds, auxiliary services revenue, indirect cost recovery funds and gifts to the IU Foundation.

"A state-of-the-art facility will enable the school to continue to attract the brightest students and highest-caliber faculty," said Dr. Lloyd Hagedorn, chair of the alumni building executive committee. "This is a new chapter for IU dentistry."

Projected opening of the building is 2020, the year Indiana University commemorates its bicentennial.